As Democrats await President Joe Biden’s reelection announcement, some question whether Vice President Kamala Harris has the political acumen to succeed him at the top of the ticket should he decline, a doubt that could pressure rivals to enter the fray.
Biden has said he intends to run for reelection in 2024 with Harris by his side, but the president has yet to make a formal decision, leaving members of his party to speculate about the prospects of the woman poised to succeed him.
This includes Democrats otherwise inclined to take a pass on the race. “If Kamala Harris continues to be weak and irrelevant, he will be under significant pressure to consider running,” said a source who has been close to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) since the beginning of his political career. “She has never been a strong campaigner and has benefited from good timing and poor California opposition in the past.”
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The source nevertheless pushed back against claims last year that the governor was raring to jump into the race.
In an interview with Boston public radio station WGBH, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) stopped short of a full endorsement when asked whether Harris should remain Biden’s 2024 running mate. “I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” Warren said moments after asserting, “Yes, he should run again.”
Crediting Biden’s legislative accomplishments, the senator added, “He showed he’s willing to wade into the fights.”
Warren said she liked Harris and had known the vice president since her time as California attorney general. “But they need, they have to be a team,” Warren added, “and my sense is they are.”
Warren issued a statement after the interview clarifying her remarks, saying, “I fully support the president’s and vice president’s reelection together, and never intended to imply otherwise.”
It’s not only Warren who appears skeptical of Harris’s ability to ascend as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.
Days after the senator’s radio interview, Democratic leaders in key states raised doubts about Harris’s future in a report by the Washington Post’s Cleve Wootson, citing the vice president’s “underwhelming” tenure “marked by struggles.”
While a low vice presidential profile is not atypical, the difficulties surfaced early in her tenure with a fraught, high-profile assignment to slow migration from some Central American countries to the U.S.-Mexico border.
A glib response to a question from NBC’s Lester Holt about Harris’s intent to visit the southern border led to a media storm while on her first international trip to Guatemala and Mexico. It also slowed the media’s access to a trickle.
Other moments have drawn so much attention that they appear to overwhelm the vice president’s work.
Harris chairs the National Space Council, but a scripted segment in which the vice president appeared alongside a group of paid child actors in a space-themed YouTube Originals pilot drew scrutiny for its contrived nature.
Further, her portfolio lacks the legislative wins that have become synonymous with Biden’s White House. Whereas Biden has touted bipartisan legislative successes on infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, and green investments, Harris has been unable to claim a “win” at the border or on abortion and voting rights.
Harris took a lead role in the Biden administration’s efforts to highlight abortion rights after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, a message that yielded a strong turnout for the party in the midterm elections. But Democrats have few avenues for restoring a national right to abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision eliminated federal protections and Republicans gained control of the House.
Harris’s voting rights push could not overcome the filibuster in the Senate last year, even as the vice president called for reform of the rule.
A slightly larger Democratic Senate majority could boost Harris in the run-up to the 2024 elections. Untethered from the need to cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate, Harris has an opportunity to court voters and supporters across the country and to box out her potential future rivals.
Chatter about Harris’s ability to clear the field isn’t new. During the Democratic nominating contest for 2020, Harris’s presidential campaign ran aground before reaching her home state of California.
And Democrats have taken steps to raise their national profiles as speculation over the makeup of a future Democratic field has gathered steam.
After handily winning reelection, Newsom last month traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border days after Biden defended his decision not to visit the area.
As Biden struggled with low approval ratings and a stalled legislative agenda last year, Newsom swiped at Republican leaders in spats with Govs. Ron DeSantis (FL) and Greg Abbott (TX).
Newsom’s attention-grabbing exploits have drawn speculation about his ambitions, with polling placing the governor among his party’s top contenders to lead a future presidential ticket.
But while Newsom has said he has “sub-zero interest” in a White House bid and pushed back repeatedly against the question, his efforts have reignited questions about whether the two could collide on a path to the White House.
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The source close to Newsom said he would run only “if the situation dictates an opportunity,” such as a weak Harris performance.
Biden, 80, is widely expected to announce a run for a second term sometime after the State of the Union on Feb. 8.
